I have tried a few builds so far and have been experimenting with many of the skills. My favorite so far is Fungal Arts, I think just about every one of my characters has it.

My current game's build is: Swords, Staves, Dual Wielding, Artful Dodge, Fungal Arts, Astrology and Magic Training.
That is a mix of 3x warrior, 2x rogue and 2x wizard and has been working pretty well. It is mostly buffing and melee but has a high dodge, block and counter chance.

I started a spreadsheet listing the total ability bonuses from the different skill lines:Dredmor Skills

It is a work in progress but the information might be helpful.
**Edit** spreadsheet is finished!

Puce Moose wrote:

tanstaafl wrote:

Eezy_Bordone wrote:

Is there a way to get items off of the pedastals surrounded by water?

Only way I've found is teleport spells.

I think there's a psychokinetic shove skill in the psionics tree; I wonder if that would work as well.

Knightly Leap will get you over there too from the Artful Dodging line.

I started a spreadsheet listing the total ability bonuses from the different skill lines:Dredmor Skills

This is awesome! So each number is the total bonus if you take all the skills in that line?

Correct.

What the game does not tell you is the base stats are increased by the class type a skill is as well. Say you take swords, warrior skill you take you get (+2 Burliness, +1 Sagacity, +1 Nimbleness and +2 Stuborness) there are 6 skills in swords so on top of what swords says it gives you, you also get 6x the points listed above.

The spreadsheet reflects that.

I have not included any of the actual abilities you get from the skills or temporary buffs.

Does anyone else find summoning kinda game-breaking? Once you've maxed out Blood Mage and can summon a Moustache, the early game becomes flat-out boring--enemies always choose to attack the moustache, and you can just sit back and watch the slow, slow combat animations. By the time the moustache dies, you'll have gotten your mana back, so you can more or less do this indefinitely. I'm sure it loses its effectiveness later on, but for now it's made the game trivial, even on Rogue difficulty.

Does anyone else find summoning kinda game-breaking? Once you've maxed out Blood Mage and can summon a Moustache, the early game becomes flat-out boring--enemies always choose to attack the moustache, and you can just sit back and watch the slow, slow combat animations. By the time the moustache dies, you'll have gotten your mana back, so you can more or less do this indefinitely. I'm sure it loses its effectiveness later on, but for now it's made the game trivial, even on Rogue difficulty.

Smithing lets you make some amazingly decent weapons early on, after just a couple of points. Combine w/ dual wield and the first 2-3 floors are pretty much cakewalks.

I've not had any serious trouble until recently (still stuck on floor 10).

Does anyone else find summoning kinda game-breaking? Once you've maxed out Blood Mage and can summon a Moustache, the early game becomes flat-out boring--enemies always choose to attack the moustache, and you can just sit back and watch the slow, slow combat animations. By the time the moustache dies, you'll have gotten your mana back, so you can more or less do this indefinitely. I'm sure it loses its effectiveness later on, but for now it's made the game trivial, even on Rogue difficulty.

Yeah I took out a room packed with bad guys using a Moustache. As soon as he died I created a new one. I actually think it might be broken. Shouldn't he be taken mana each turn he is out?

EDIT2: Your old save games from Dredmor 1.02 almost certainly do not work with Dredmor 1.03. We apologize for the inconvenience. I’m pretty sure you’ll get an achievement for your pain, at least. — David

The guy in that linked blog seemed pretty genuinely remorseful, and a cool chap besides. Not that the save bug hit me in anyway, but it's still nice to hear from people in the games industry who aren't douches.

Why can't I place traps? I've picked up like 3 shoddy dwarvish IEDs and I can't seem to place them....

Just left click so it "picks up" then click on an open spot next to you.

I blame the tutorial. I assumed I had to put it in the lower right action spot like spells and bolts, rather than, you know, pick it up and put it back down.

I cleared level 1 with my rogue type guy. Getting jumped by 20+ bats was not cool...no traps! And then I remembered the weird octopus arrow thingie I had. Wow. It's very funny to get just a few powerful items at such a low level. Also I killed Death. Thankfully he was with 2 little critters, so I put them to sleep, and then lined a hallway with traps, and shot the critters with the crossbow.

I'm really, really liking it.

I had to look up Rogue to see if it predated Nethack. And boy, did it. (Rogue, 1980; Hack, 1985; Nethack, 1987).
Still, this is bringing me back to 1991, and three of us around a PC playing Nethack at university.

"Drink it!"

"No way, man!"

"Just drink it already."

"Fine."

"Great, I just polymorphed into a rat." or more likely, "thanks, I'm dead."

I did polymorph into something powerful once. Damned if I can remember what it was...

This is one of those games I know I will enjoy, and is cheap enough to impulse buy, yet I doubt will ever get the time it deserves. First of all, I have a dozen other games I need to finish. Second of all, and more insidiously, based on what I have seen so far the game will receive excellent support. This means I will constantly be waiting until the 'next patch', as even more good stuff will inevitably be added.

The same thing is happening to Terraria as I patiently wait until the 1.0.6 patch. They better not announce a 1.0.7 patch for some time, or it will have to go back in the pile while I wait for that!

Damn you, indie developers and your superlative support! At this rate I'll never play your games!